Dao de Jing

By: Roger Ames, David L. Hall

Narrated by: Robert Lowenstein

Length: 8 hrs and 14 mins

Publisher's summary

Composed more than 2,000 years ago, the Dao de jing (Tao Te Ching) set forth an alternative vision of reality in a world torn apart by violence and betrayal. Second only to the Bible, this timeless classic is one of the world's most revered inspirational books. Daoism offers a comprehensive view of experience grounded in a full understanding of the wonders hidden in the ordinary. Now in this luminous new translation, Chinese scholars Ames and Hall bring the timeless wisdom of the Dao de jing into our contemporary world.

©2003 Roger T. Ames and David L. Hall (P)2007 BBC Audiobooks America

Best fortune cookie ever!

Perfect if you want to explore the text as much as you can. Only complaint is how the audiobook chapters are structured seems odd with how the actual book is structured.

awesome book

the Dao de Jing is an excellent book for guidance on making your way through life

Unless you are a sinologist

I am fluent in modern Chinese, but the narrator's pronouciation is so awful that I couldn't understand what he was saying without going back to the ancient original. This translation also suffers from too many commentaries, two hours introduction and 81 commentary made this book very unwieldly, the philosophical translation (or rather, philosophical commentaries) also render this edition arcane at best, but if you are a sinologist, I think this book will still be of interest to you.

best self help book EVER!

It seems that 2400- 2600 years ago there was a lot of thinking going on. Socrates. Siddhartha, and Lao Tzu. and all of it so applicable today that it seems fresh. and matured.

Wonderful

Definitely a great read that sheds light on many of the otherwise vague passages in the Dao.

as good as it gets

thorough analysis and explanation, allow a reader used to western philosophy to approach the Dao De Jing in the right way, answer some questions and explained why others have to remain unanswered or rather, explain which one are the correct ones to ask

commentary.

Great commentary, love experiencing different views and expressions of this text. if you enjoy learning about the Tao, you will enjoy this book.

As a sinologist, I get it

As a sinologist, and a practicing Daoist, I get it. The explanations in the shift of worldview and thought processes necessary to understand the Dao De Jing are on point, and vitally needed in order to truly understand the Dao De Jing. If you want to read poetry, then read a poem. If you want to understand the universe, then read the Dao De Jing. However, I would recommend reading this book because this audio translation of the book is the worst ever. First, it sounds like a machine is reading. Where is the passion and humanity? Not here. Second, the pronunciations of the Chinese words are completely inaccurate. They are so mindboggling inaccurate that I cannot finish listening to this tape (or stream of 1s and 0s). I want to throw up every time I hear Robert Lowenstein pronounce a Chinese word, even a simple one. Pin yin (the romanization system that renders characters into words using a Western alphabet) is not that hard to master, and no one is even asking that he get the tones right, but please do us a favor and try to pronounce the Chinese words in a book about Chinese words relatively accurately, for the love of god!

Good, but needs better chapter breaks

This audio recording could really use some bookmarks. There are 81 chapters to the Dao De Jing, and it's very difficult to find the specific chapter you are looking for. The actual chapter splits seem to be random, and unconcerned about whether they split at an actual chapter, or even in the middle of the commentary. It would actually be much more useful, and less confusing, if there were a new chapter or a bookmark for each chapter from the book.

Chapters make it really hard to reference after

The actual chapters are really short even including the commentary. The structure of this recording makes it really hard to re-read any actual chapters to think about the lessons.